Branca Menta, 70 cl

Product Information

In cooperation with Eataly and the museum services of the city of Turin, Fratelli Branca Distillerie has opened a museum devoted to the history of the Carpano brand and of vermouth. On the inhale, you mostly get strong, cooling mint oil, laced with a whiff of medicinal herbs. It’s actually pretty subtle, giving you only a preview of what’s about to come. Taste

The company, a pioneer in the creation of a bitter liqueur made from herbs and roots from all over the world, has always based its work on innovation, whilst respecting traditions and quality. Though popular throughout the country, Fernet and Coke is most strongly linked to the province of Cordoba. Legend has it that the combination, known locally as fernandito, was invented here in the 1970s by a local drummer, Oscar “el Negro” Becerra. The story goes that, one day, Becerra had no soda water to mix with his Fernet, so he added Coca-Cola instead. It had the desired effect of diluting the alcohol and adding effervescence, but the sweet cola also crucially counteracted Fernet’s astringent bitterness. Frateli Branca Destilerías - Institucional". 31 May 2020. Con las migraciones italianas de fines del siglo XIX llegó Fernet Branca a la Argentina. Debido a su gran aceptación, la compañía decidió en 1925 que la empresa Hofer & C. de Buenos Aires -concesionaria exclusiva para la venta del famoso "amaro" italiano- elaborara la bebida a partir del extracto enviado desde la casa matriz italiana. Sales topped 47m litres last year, and are still growing, Olianas says. As a result, “our benchmark in Argentina is now wine and beer, it’s no longer spirits”. He has obviously contemplated how to replicate the success in other markets, but wonders whether the conditions in Argentina were somehow unique, what with the long-established distillery and the millions of emigré Italians. If you’ve ever been challenged to a shot of Fernet Branca, you know how polarizing it can be: it seems you either love it or hate it. Really, it takes a few tries to acclimate to the experience (and it’s worth it), but is Branca Menta any different?Sugar and mint absolutely dominate the first wave of flavor, then those bitter herbal notes creep in around the edges. There’s cinnamon and saffron, with piney tones shining over the surface. Still, a steady sweetness runs throughout. Body In the early ’90s, Branca noticed the growing popularity of Fernet and Coke in Cordoba and saw a potentially lucrative opportunity. It launched a series of national advertising campaigns actively encouraging the combination, hoping that Argentines would drink it outside the home, in bars and nightclubs. Lahrichi, Kamilia (14 March 2017). "Argentina loves its Fernet, a bitter Italian liquor". CNN . Retrieved 16 June 2020. a b c d e f Cavalieri, Nate (7 December 2005). "The Myth of Fernet". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on 21 February 2007 . Retrieved 11 April 2020. Caro, Rebecca. "Argentinean Mixology: Fernet and Coke". From Argentina With Love . Retrieved 7 December 2016.

In 2016, Hernán Mutti, head of marketing at Fratelli Branca, told Fortune, “We had to convince Argentina that this was the way to drink Fernet: to be shared between friends. It was being drunk behind closed doors; it wasn’t a friendly product.” Fernet-Branca has a higher alcohol content, at 39%, and lower sugar content than most other amari. [16] It is aged in oak barrels for a year. [16]The city had access to countless exotic herbs and spices from the west via Genoa, and from the east via Trieste and Venice. But starting life as a remedy is common for a number of aperitifs. The same goes for the 1880s nerve tonic Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, known as Coca-Cola today. However Fernet-Branca never contained the raw plant for cocaine and nor is it distilled from railroad tar and spinach as the New York Times journalist Toby Cecchini once suspected. Instead it is made from “a secret recipe of 27 ingredients, of which 13 are herbs and spices,” Olianas says. A few jagged edges may be smoothed down after a year’s ageing in big Slovenian oak vats, but it is still a wonder how on earth the drink seduced a generation that was raised on Coke and candy.